ATI is where it's at for mining. Even my ancient HD6450 is pulling 22MH/s. Pretty good for a generic old passive cooled card. Sits in the bottom slot chugging away beneath my HD7770.
The HD6970 is a bit of a beast, got it running in my dedicated miner machine, got that card for £100 used. Paid for itself in a month thanks to the price bubble a few weeks ago.